Now while I would not slate ANy particular make of van I would say try finding forums for foreign vans,German in particular. you will find that although they have a possibly unproven reputation for superior build quality to us british they are not so well thought of in european circles,with Hobby being rather less desirable than would have been thought. Having said that I personally would not ever contemplate spending £15k + for any British van unless I could afford to swap it in before the warranty expired.

I had a Hymer Nova 2002 for 6 years and spent 24 months in it over that time. Structurally it was perfect but the 3rd party fittings were no different to other vans i.e Truma fire Reich taps and pumps all gave trouble. The model was changed significantly around 2004 (I think) and there have been plenty of complaints since about structural problems. I didnt like the dealers much and changed to a Fendt after that, however there are no (Fendt) dealers in the UK now. I have just bought a Lunar and have fingers crossed about quality.
I dont supose this helps much but I would be interested see which way you go.
David

I'm on my second Hymer picked it up exactly 1 year ago to the day. It's a 2007 model and if I'm honest I'm not sure it is quite as well built as the 2001 one we had previously. But even saying that it's still well built and designed. What has impressed me are the bits that you can't see. For nstance the waste water drainage all goes through traps to a single point so no christmas connector required. The drain is a ridgid pipe sloped to give a proper fall so it doesn't freeze. We do a lot of winter vanning and friends arevalways complaining about cold drafts particularly through the fridge vents, not in a Hymer. Even the Truma fire is the 5kW version I have never seen one fitted to UK van they are all 3kW, the hot air ducts in old van all were inside new van about a 3' length runs outside and is fully insulated so the hot air heats the van not the enviroment.
on the flip side with the Lunar you are going to get a nice new van and no doubt lighter, but check how much of extra weight is payload rather than the actual weight of the van.

If for the same layout if I was offered the choice of a brand new van or a 5 year old I would get the new one. If I was offered a 5 year old Hymer at a sensible price then that's exactly what I bought and pocket the difference

Having had a selection of British caravans over 40 years and having had to deal with damp in the 2 new ones we bought within 12 months of purchase, we decided to buy a new 2006 Hymer. We have just been to the Manchester show and both said we wouldn't swop ours for any of the new ones. O.K. the fittings inside are British, but that says a lot when things do go wrong. We had the 'van serviced yesterday by a mobile engineer and when it came to the damp test, he just said " this is a waste of time getting the meter out". My advice would be, look out for a good used Hymer although it's difficult prising then out of ownnership we know.Hope this helps....Peter

The Mptlm of a 4 berth Lunar depending on exactly which model is arround about 1400-1450Kg. The MRo of a Hymer 570 is 1410Kg so the unladen weight of the Hymer is aboult the same as the laden mass of a an equilvalent Lunar. But the MPTLM of the Hymer is 1700Kg so the user payload is 290Kg which is considerably less than the 400kg of the last one we had, The payload of the 4 berth single axle Lunar's is in the range of 150-160kg.

I would struggle with a pay load of 155kg, thats before you add any extra's such as a motor mover which weighs about 30kg which has to be taken off the payload. Just weigh a bottle of wine or a can of beans, how much does a Cadac weigh? just to see how little you can carry to keep within the weight limit.

I do wonder how MPTLM is arrived at

Is it a team of highly trained and professional engineers equiped with supper computers calculating all the data to arrive at the answer

Or is it someone saying what's max towing weight of a Mondeo and we stick that on the plate?

This is not to single out Lunar btw I think most manufactures play this game